(first posted 12/4/2013) When CC reader Robert.Walter sent me the link to this collection at imgr.com titled “Los Angeles 1989 through the 1960’s”, I had to share a select few, and give you a link to the rest of them. This one is from Hollywood Boulevard, and the juxtaposition of the Caddy and the Imperial ad is rather nice.

While we’re in Hollywood, how about a look at the famous corner of Hollywood and Vine, circa 1951 or so?

No less than two bullet-Birds are shopping at Market Basket. I remember these signs from my days there in the late seventies-early eighties.

And the May Company looks familiar too. Love those girls’ new matching outfits…Dad’s grumbling about how expensive they were.

Even at 3 AM, the 101 isn’t this uncrowded nowadays.

That’s not to say there weren’t traffic jams then. Here’s folks trying to get to the Hollywood bowl. Who was performing?

Time to head for Manhattan Beach.

This is the youngest shot, from 1968. As kids, we used to always chuckle when we saw one of the S.E. Rykoff trucks with its slogan “Enjoy Life! Eat Out More Often!” after my older brother explained to me the lewd interpretation of that expression.

This classic shot has certainly made the rounds. But what a perfect one it is. Los Angelinos having their version of a religious experience.

Hollywood Blvd. may have had some down and out sections, but the folks driving through it (the ads target audience) is another story. It looks fairly typical for an LA major arterial street in the day.

Fabulous photos. This was L.A. in my childhood and teen years. Love all the neon signs in the Imperial pic, those were ubiquitous back then. I so remember the Market Basket groceries, and good old May Co., we did a lot of shopping in those stores back then. I wonder if this could have been the one in the Miracle Mile area. The Hollywood Bowl was always a nightmare to enter and exit, I remember it taking two hours to get out of there one time, I have avoided going back. Brendan notes the difference between the low and wide Imperial and the chunkier Cadillac, there was a world of difference in the seven or eight years between them. Those 50’s cars lasted a long time in Southern Cal, they were on the streets for years. Great trip down Memory Lane!

Jeez, I was so focused on the cars that I did not even notice the Capitol Records building! I recall either a book or a documentary saying that when Capitol started answering its phones “Capitol Records, Home of the Beatles” in 1963 or 64, Nat King Cole was incensed. He was the guy who generated the cash to build that building (with a little late help from Frank Sinatra).

Unfortunately, Nat King Cole didn’t have much more time to live after Capitol started answering its phones that way; he died in February 1965 of lung cancer. CAT BALLOU, in which he featured, was released after his death.

LOL, Capital Records was lucky to have the Beatles on their label at all – it happened only because they had the first rights in the U.S. to release British recordings made for EMI and their subsidiaries, and they even almost blew that chance by rejecting their early recordings for almost a year until a Capitol higher-up intervened, which is why the first Beatles album was originally released on Vee-Jay in America with early 45s on other small labels. The Beatles never recorded in the Capitol Tower studios with its awesome echo chambers. Wonder who was when that photo was taken? Frank Sinatra? The Beach Boys?

My God incredibly so. I lived at the far west end of the Valley (1966) where Roscoe Blvd. ended at Valley Circle. All summer I could look down the Valley towards Van Nuys and West Hollywood where you could see this yellow wall of haze. Then one day, in September, there was one of those famous Santa Anna days of wind and I saw the mountains ringing the Valley for the first time since moving there. At Jr. High there were days we were not allowed out for P.E. Days where a deep breath would be very painful.

I well remember those smoggy days. We moved from Portland Oregon in 1967, my 11 year old self started experiencing severe chest pains, felt like someone was squeezing my lungs in a death grip. The doctor said all was well, my body just needed to get used to the smog. It did.

I worked at the VW dealership in Hollywood around 1977. The dealerships underground shop exited across the street from the Capitol building. t’s undergr Parked in lot next to the Capitol Records building. Kept getting the tail lamp lenses stolen off my ’66 VW Fastback there. I soon sold the VW to buy my ’70 C10 from a co worker who was the original owner ($1000 with 64k miles on it, sold the VW for $800) while working at this dealership. Prostitutes would ask me if I was looking for a date while walking down the street to the deli for dinner when working the late shift. Little did I know at the time I still would have the truck in 2006 living in Washington State.

On a California city/car related note, I watched “Bullitt” the other night (for the umpteenth time!) and it still boggles my mind at all the then “common” cars that were casually parked along the streets!! Oh, if I only could have a combination time machine/transporter!! 🙂

I like watching the reruns of Dragnet and Adam-12 to see how many classic cars show up in the exterior shots. It’s mind-boggling to see how many Mustangs are driving around SoCal at the time, but not surprising since there was an entire assembly plant in LA dedicated to cranking them out in the 1960s.

John Pierce, almost correct. Actually, the Mustang(and soon Cougar) assembly plant was 400 miles north in San Jose/Milpitas, CA. It was the second of three plants(the others-Dearborn and Metuchen, NJ) to turn out Mustangs. On the other hand, there was an assembly plant in nearby Van Nuys that locally turned out the first Camaro’s in August 1966. I snuck a look over the fence at GMAD Van Nuys at that time, only to be stunned by the sight of Camaros next to fullsize Chevrolets for 1967. Don’t know why, I wasn’t expecting to see Camaros-only the big Chevys. I’ll never forget that Sunday.

Looking at the freeway pic, you can appreciate the value of a Jersey barrier, or some means to avoid oncoming cars from crossing the median. There must have been some catastrophic accidents back then… a blowout could be deadly for many.

As a child, I was happy to see the GMC New Look buses replace the Old Look buses.
They seemed so much more modern. But I miss the style of the Old Looks.

No kidding, here’s a horrible 1958 DUI crash from the LA Times website. The center divider propelled the drunk’s car into the air at the oncoming lane.

Teamsters representative Fred Ferrier was sentenced to three months in jail and a $1,000 fine after a Jan. 29, 1958, accident in which his airborne car jumped the center divider on the Pasadena Freeway and killed the driver of an oncoming car. Ferrier failed an “intoximeter” test, The Times said. The southbound car traveled more than 500 feet after the crash decapitated the driver, Alex Weinberg.

Very light sentence too. Yes, drunk driving was a big problem all over, till the 80s. I recall chain link fences were a popular divider too. But of course they wouldn’t be any better. I remember reading a story, back in the 80s, about a guy in Toronto that was impaled by a freeway chain link fence bar. Amazingly, he lived to tell about it.

Drunk driving is still a big problem, we were just made more aware of it beginning in the 1980’s. I have driven when I should not have when younger but now I think there is no excuse for it. Fines and jail time for DWI should be outrageous.

Daniel

Posted December 4, 2013 at 7:43 PM

Perhaps I should have said BIG problem. It was very much out-of-control in some areas in the 70s and before, by our more recent standards of non-acceptance. It appeared socially acceptable, not just amongst teens.

My dad would tell me stories about how back in the 60s and 70s, police would pull drunks over, and let them continue if the driver said they lived nearby for example. He was in the military at the time, and he said hearing stories like that were not uncommon.

I can remember when the San Diego Freeway (the infamous 405) was first extended into West L.A., about 1958. The center divider consisted of periodically spaced concrete bollards with oleanders planted between them. Can’t imagine they offered much protection. Later those were replaced by the chain link fencing, and of course much later by the CalTrans barriers.

That is the 110 freeway (Arroyo Seco Parkway) in Highland Park. I believe the Hermon Ave was what is now Marmion Way. Anyway, interesting about the center divider info… that freeway was built in 1941 as the first pre-Interstate freeway in the US, with a speed limit of 45 MPH. In the early days, the median was filled with flowers! Today there is a proper center divider, larger than the one shown above, and the speed limit is 55 MPH.

I can remember going on a field trip in kindergarten via city bus – possibly one of, if not the first RTS in the local fleet. Looked like a spaceship compared to a New Look, but I had graduated high school before New Looks were phased out and there are still quite a few RTS’s around 20 years after that.

Thanks for jogging my memory, I kind of thought that was the old Hall of Justice. My grandmother was L.A. County’s first woman court reporter, she worked in that building from the 1920’s until her retirement in 1948. I thought it had been torn down, but great to hear it’s gaining new life.

You know, I think you’re correct. I’ll bet that’s the one I remember being torn down. It was positioned sort of obliquely on its site, as I remember. But my grandmother did work in the Hall of Justice, she often had tales of the seamier side of L.A. life that she witnessed in those courtrooms.

XR7Matt

Posted December 5, 2013 at 9:51 PM

Very cool! I’ve always been fascinated by old L.A. history, especially the gritty underbelly 🙂

The Hall of Records was originally aligned with an older street grid before City Hall and everything were erected, hence the oblique alignment in later years.

Don Williamson

Posted December 6, 2013 at 9:04 AM

Thanks, XR7Matt, that explains the odd alignment. Yeah, there was a really gritty underside to L.A., my grandmother’s favorite story was reporting the Aimee Semple McPherson case, remember that? Downtown L.A. was pretty awful back then, nobody went there after dark. In fact, when she often worked late at the Hall of Justice, she would be escorted by security officers out of the area on her way home to the westside. My father would often drive us through downtown on our way out of town for vacation trips (few freeways back in the early ’50’s). My mother would get very nervous, and tell us kids to roll up all the windows and lock the doors. Bunker Hill was a mess, filthy decrepit tenement buildings, dirty streets, Skid Row bums lurking everywhere. No wonder there was such a flight to the suburbs. The real downtown renaissance didn’t begin until the mid-60’s, with the Bunker Hill redevelopment program and the coming of the Music Center and related buildings.

That’s Sunset in the first pic, not Hollywood Blvd. (Sunset and Larabee….) The Melody Room became the Viper Room (River Phoenix, etc…). According to Google Street View, that liquor store is still there….but now it’s Terner’s instead of Turner’s.
I still think that one of the most striking pics of LA in the 50’s has to be this shot of James Dean, taken about 6 hours prior to his death….especially with the “hearse-like” vehicle on the right….

The ford wagon and trailer parked behind The Little Bastard may be what Bill Hickman (aka Big Bastard) was driving as he followed Dean to the race. If so, possibly this pic was taken by Hickman himself.

These are awesome pictures! I love them all. It is especially interesting to me to see the Hollywood Blvd. shot (amazing billboard!) and also Manhattan Beach, filled with American cars. Today that Manhattan Beach shot would basically be 95% imported brand vehicles, from run-of-the-mill Toyotas and Hondas to swanky Europeans. And of the small percentage of domestic brands, most would be SUVs or else rentals.

Paul: Years late with a minor correction. The shot at the top is Sunset Boulevard, not Hollywood Boulevard. The corner of Sunset and Larrabee, to be exact…a block east of and across the street from the Whisky A Go-Go. Turner’s Liquors sold somewhere in the past couple of decades, but still exists as “Terner’s Liquors”…and the billboard (with a different message) is still atop the building. And the “Melody Room” in the old shot is the infamous “Viper Room” today. Here’s the Google Street View capture from May of 2016:

We lived in the LA suburbs when my Dad briefly had a job in El Monte starting in 1959 (working on solar cells!)…he drove his old ’56 Plymouth from the East Coast carrying a freezer chest of some chemicals he’d be needing for his job, ran out of dry ice in Arizona, and fortunately was able to get some since what he was carrrying was apparently very flammable as it got warmer. We flew out with my Mother, as we were very young and first lived in Glendora, then moved to Covina (first home my Parents ever bought) even though we were gone by 1961…my Dad did trade in his Plymouth for a Rambler wagon (with Automatic for my Mother) which he bought in Compton. We ended up driving back to the East Coast in the Rambler as we were a few years older (and flying was expensive)…of course no air conditioning in the Rambler.

Hollywood and Vine controlled by four stop signs! Wow. I like the shot of City Hall. Reminds me of War of the Worlds.

I arrived in the Canoga Park in June 1966 from Catonsville, MD at the age of 12. I remember May Co, Market Basket, Ralph’s, Capital Records and the first time I saw the huge Bob’s Big Boy sign and plastic statue. The 68 Cougar in my garage was bought by my father at Canoga Park L&M April 20, 1968.

Lived there for only two years but have many fond memories of the Valley from that time and all the way to the beaches at Santa Monica and Malibu. Moved to San Diego and have even better memories.